Each year before Passover arrives, the annual scramble to creatively rid my kitchen of hametz begins. These three recipes will wow your friends with carb-laden pre-Passover goodies, but they're good enough to make year round.
My favorite kind of bread to use in bread pudding is leftover challah, but you can use any bread you have lying around. Whole wheat bread or French bread will be fine. I grew up eating my mom's bread pudding made with the ends of white bread that we wouldn't eat.
Ingredients
4-5 cupsleftover bread cut or broken into chunks 3 Tablespoonsunsweetened cocoa powder 1 cupheavy cream 1 cupmilk or half and half 3/4 cupchocolate chips 4eggs 1egg yolk 1/2 cupsugar Butter, margarine, or oil to grease pan (you may also use PAM spray)
Grease a 9x13 pan and fill it with the chunks of bread.
In a saucepan over medium low heat, whisk together milk or half and half, heavy cream, and cocoa powder. Slowly add chocolate chips until smooth and melted.
In a bowl, whisk together eggs, egg yolk, and sugar.
After the chocolate mixture has cooled to room temperature, slowly fold it into the eggs and sugar with a spatula.
Pour this combined mixture over the bread in the pan, and set aside for 1-2 hours; you can cover with plastic wrap and put in the fridge.
Bake bread pudding at 350 degrees for about 40 minutes. Serve with whipped cream or ice cream.
Shannon Sarna is the baketress behind Sweeney Sweets: Traditional Challah with a Modern Twist. A lover of all things food, she spends her spare time glued to The Food Network, and baking at her favorite kitchen in Englewood, NJ. In her professional life, she serves as External Relations Coordinator for The Samuel Bronfman Foundation in NYC.
